Interview with Greek Orthodox Moms Founder, Irene Sakkas about Kivotos tou Kosmou
On Friday, July 21st KefiFM had a very uplifting interview with Irene Sakkas, founder of the Greek Orthodox Moms FB page. She shared her story of how and why she launched this very successful group and talked about an organization for Children in Greece, that is very near to her heart; Kivotos tou Kosmou. Listen to the interview below.
Can you tell me a little about Greek Orthodox Moms?
What really just started with the simple idea of connecting with other moms and carrying the traditions of our ancestors, has become a great network of women from around the world who share the same faith and culture.
How did this idea to start this kind of group come about?
Well I've always been very passionate about my faith and culture. It’s such a significant part of who I am and I’m ever so grateful of the experiences I had growing up. Now as a mom I want my son to experience the same, only this time it’s a little more difficult because my mother is from Greece, so my son’s experience is a little more removed, which is why I wanted to reach out further than my own circles. With that, we created this group really out of this love of our faith, culture, and motherhood for us to learn from each other, seek advice, share resources and so on.
Who is this group comprised of?
I’m fortunate to have an amazing little team to help me administer the group. As you can imagine, it’s not always easy managing thousands of primarily Greek women! We’re currently nearing 16,000 members really from all walks of life, spanning around the world. Our larger member bases are New York, Boston and Chicago areas as well as Greece and Australia.
And just moms?
No, not necessarily. We accept non-moms as well, but there's a mom focus. Due to some of the sensitive topics shared we do only accept women though. We want it to be a safe place women can seek support, comfort and resources even for the most sensitive topics.
Speaking of topics, can you share the types of things shared in the group?
Really everything related to our faith, culture and parenting. Of course there's a lot of the typical Greek mom type posts such as recipes from koulourakia to koliva, recommendations for Greek language learning materials, traveling to Greece with kids, questions and advice pertaining to traditions or sacraments, etc. We are blessed to have many presbyteres join us who are a wealth of knowledge as well. I'll be honest, I've learned so much!
We also get a lot of prayer requests, because if there's one thing we can do for each other it would be to pray for each other. Many women have opened up have gained strength from the page.
What really continues to inspire me though are the countless instances of women helping women.
One that comes to mind is a woman living here in the US posted from Greece as she visited her sick mother in Athens. She had trouble finding a suitable caretaker and was due to return to the states. You can imagine the stress the woman felt knowing she had to soon leave her mother in Athens and without assurance that her mother would be on good hands. After posting to the group there was an out pour of support.. women contacted those they knew in Athens and within a couple days an exceptional caretaker was found that cared for her mother until her last and final day.
There have really been so many beautiful stories. We've laughed together and cried together. Despite the size of the group, it really is like one big sisterhood!
For those interested in joining or following, are you just on Facebook or are you on other social media?
Our Facebook group is our main base.
We also have a separate group to support businesses called Greek Orthodox Moms Doing Business.
All are welcome to follow us on Instagram (@greekorthodoxmoms), Pinterest (@orthodoxmoms) and YouTube (GreekOrthodoxMoms).
